IFAD and FAO combine their expertise for better management of projects in fragile states

US$2 million IFAD grant to FAO for capacity development

The Director-General of FAO, José Graziano da Silva, and the President of IFAD, Kanayo F. Nwanze.

Rome, 5 December 2013 - The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) will provide a grant of US$2 million to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) for enhanced management and implementation of agricultural development programmes. The pilot project will improve planning capacity of developing countries. Kanayo F. Nwanze, President of IFAD, and José Graziano da Silva, Director General of FAO, signed the grant agreement today at IFAD headquarters in Rome.

The activities spelled out in the grant will initially be implemented in ten fragile countries and low-income countries not designated (by the World Bank) as fragile, but in which agricultural institutions are weak. The grant aims to provide capacity development support for better governance, project management and implementation, along with knowledge sharing. In order to maximize synergies and impact, the grant activities will be delivered in a coordinated way through a specific Accelerated Capacity-Development Plan (ACDP).

IFAD had worked closely with FAO since its inception, initially to design investment programmes, and expanding gradually to collaboration in strategy development, implementation support and learning lessons. The first learning phase will build a knowledge base and the operational platform for a more ambitious capacity-development programme.

"IFAD recognizes the crucial importance of improving the governance and capacity of institutions and implementation partners in fragile states," said Kanayo F. Nwanze, President of IFAD. "The experience and learning from this pilot project will provide the basis for developing a proposal on larger scale," he added.

"This is a good example of how collaboration among Rome-based agencies can work," said FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva.. "We expect to see improvement of project performance in the short term at the same time that we develop better capacities in the medium term".

The project will operate within the strategic and policy collaboration frameworks between the beneficiary countries, IFAD and FAO. IFAD and FAO will collectively work with a common vision to address world food security to alleviating hunger and poverty through long-term support to agricultural development and smallholder farmers in fragile states.